


Time Runs Out

by AlsRogers



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Auntie Natasha is the best, Established Relationship, Gen, Incursion, M/M, Major character death but with happy ending, Multiverse, Original Female Character - Freeform, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Endgame, Superfamily, Superhusbands, Superhusbands AU, They were the clue all the time, Those beautiful brown eyes of Tony, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:46:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlsRogers/pseuds/AlsRogers
Summary: Being full-time Avengers did not make room for Steve and Tony plan to build a family. Until they found out they already had one.





	1. Prologue: The Incursion Has Arrived.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, everyone!
> 
> So, I've been part of this fandom for a really long time but I've never tried to dive into writing nothing about these characters. So this is my first try! This said, comments are always welcome.
> 
> This story lies somewhere post-Infinity War and post-Avengers 4. I want to believe that everything will end well after all those events, but we are talking about the Avengers, so nothing remains calm and stable for very long.

>   
>  “The rules have changed today  
>  I have no place to stay  
>  I'm thinking about the subway  
>  My love has flown away  
>  My tears have come and gone  
>  Oh my Lord, I have to roam  
>  I have no home  
>  I have no home”

The alarm that sounded in the laboratory was deafening.

Everyone expected it to happen, but not so fast. The incursion had arrived much sooner than it was anticipated and that was a surprise indeed, after all, Tony Stark never missed his calculations. But now there was no time to think about what could have gone wrong, what comma had been put in the wrong place, or which decimal place had been skipped. Now, the most important thing was to finish the only way to get someone alive out of that incursion.

“How long until it's ready?” A worried and urgent voice coming from the door shouted louder than the alarm.

“Just a few more minutes,” Tony shouted back, his head tucked beneath a large, oval metal frame with a transparent top. A ship.

“I don’t know if we have a few minutes.” The voice was above Tony now, but still worried.

Not bothering to reply the obvious, Tony kept working on the final additions of the ship. That was the only salvation of that incursion that already consumed half of the planet. No second could be lost with meaningless conversations. A few minutes later, Tony stepped out from under the ship, wiping his hands on his jeans. He stared at the man in front of him. Even after all those years Tony's heart still lost a beat whenever his eyes met his husband's: two blue oceans, which the engineer knew very well how to sail.

“It’s ready.” Tony wanted to smile, as he always did when he finished a particularly difficult and challenging project, but not this time. This time his eyes filled with tears for the future ahead of them.

“Come here.” Steve Rogers, who would say, had the softest embrace in the world. No one could imagine that the all-powerful Captain America could be so delicate and capable of so much tenderness. Tony allowed himself to melt in Steve's arms for only a few seconds before sniffing and wiping away his tears.

“We don’t have any more time,” he said, pulling away and looking at Steve. And Tony was sure that the expression of pain on the other's face was a mirror of his own.

With a painfully heavy sigh, Steve turned and ran toward the door. Trying not to think too much about what was about to happen, Tony looked out the window of the laboratory, to the literal hell the Earth had become. The sky was completely dark, but with no moon (God knows what had happened to it), buildings coming down, the ground cracking and exposing the boiling subsoil of lava, desperate cries, flying heroes still trying to save what was already doomed and all wrapped in a nauseating smell of sulfur and burnt skin. Shaking his head and refusing to look at the clock, Tony turned his back to the scene just in time to see Steve walking back into the lab and, to Tony's relief, accompanied.

Tony ran for the ship and opened the transparent cover to press a few buttons on the panel and set it all before takeoff.

“All set,” he said, turning away, his heart breaking in a thousand pieces with the injustice of all that. Steve was bent over the girl he had brought by the hand, choking her in a hug while stroking her short blond hair and Tony could see that his husband was making the biggest effort in the world not to succumb to tears. The girl hugged Steve with the same intensity, but she trembled, her sobs audible above all the cacophony. Tony approached and Steve gently turned the girl towards him and, like magnets, the two clung together in a hug.

Tony stroked her back, trying to soothe her - or soothe himself, he did not know - as he kissed the top of her head.

“Hey.” He pulled away a little and cupped her face in his hands. Their eyes met and Tony wished he could give away everything he had to remove that sadness from her eyes. “Never forget one thing.” She stopped sobbing for a moment, paying attention. _“You're my best creation.”_ Tony smiled at her, a smile full of his deepest love, despite all the pain of that situation and gave her one more hug. He felt another pair of arms, larger and stronger, around them, and saw Steve covering them, before hearing the fatal words from him.

“It's time,” they all froze in place. “We can’t wait any longer.”

With what remains of his strength, Tony held the girl to the ship and helped her in. Steve bent down and buckled her belt and, before moving away, gave her a long kiss on the cheek.

“I love you, honey bun,” he said, his voice breaking in the end.

“And I love you,” she finally said, her voice full of knots, and pain and despair and love.

Tony put his hand to his mouth and sent a flying kiss in her direction as Steve hugged him by the shoulders. She was going to be fine, Tony thought, she was strong, intelligent and extremely powerful. Nothing could hurt her. Except for an incursion.

The ship's lid closed just as the first wall of the laboratory exploded.

The engine in the ship began to operate when the second wall of the laboratory exploded.

The ship began to rise as the third wall of the laboratory exploded.

And the ship vanished into thin air as the last wall of the laboratory exploded.

Tony hugged Steve by the waist and looked deep into his husband's eyes.

“We did it right, didn’t we?”

“Yes, we did. The best of us will survive.” He smiled sadly.

“I love you,” Tony said on tiptoe.

Steve bent over to kiss Tony with sweetness and passion and for a moment, there was no incursion, no fire, and no destruction. There were only the two of them under a dome of love and the certainty that their daughter was safe.

“I love you more,” Steve said, and then the fire burned everything.


	2. Murphy's Law

> “If I had a box just for wishes  
>  And dreams that had never come true  
>  The box would be empty  
>  Except for the memory  
>  Of how they were answered by you”

 

The sound of the warning alarms was deafening.

That was supposed to be a calm day, like any other, in the life of the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes: fight some minor villains, but no less disgusting and annoying, nothing really troubling, leave the mess to Damage Control and go back to the Compound to continue the routine, until some real villain decided to dominate the world and give them some work to do.

However, we are talking about the Avengers, also known as “those for whom Murphy's Law was created.” If something could get out of control that was certainly what would happen.

“Whose idea was it to set two alarms?” Clint Barton, the Hawkeye, grunted as he set his quiver behind his back.

He, Natasha Romanoff, the lethal spy known as the Black Widow, Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the monster fed by pure rage Hulk, Sam Wilson, the winged Avenger known as Falcon, Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch and the android Vision were gathered in the equipment room, preparing for another imminent mission - that they still did not know what it would be.

“It was Banner’s.” Natasha pointed her finger to somewhere behind her.

“Damn it, Banner.” Barton looked darkly at Bruce, adjusted the volume of his hearing aids, and his face became a little calmer.

“The idea was that if one failed, the other could replace it.” Bruce shrugged apologetically.

“Then we can say we have a problem,” Wanda said, passing by them to get a jacket.

Before Bruce could respond, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Thor came in discussing something that seemed important. The three side by side were an incredible view, which made it impossible to look away for a second. Tony already had his Iron Man armor covering his whole body, except for the head, Steve was carrying Captain America's shield on his back, but he was already wearing his helmet, and Thor was carrying his huge ax as if it had not any weight, with his cape fluttering behind him.

Natasha approached and they stopped the heated conversation they were having.

“What do we have?”

“Two different situations,” Steve said.

Natasha's eyes widened for a second and she looked at Banner.

“It was not a mistake after all.”

The scientist merely smiled.

“We have reports of Doombots attacking in Queens, near Queens College,” Captain continued. “We have many schools in the area and many civilians on the way. Me, Tony, Wanda and Bruce are going there.”

“And will it be enough?” Wanda asked. “Why not call Rhodes and Bucky, too?”

“T'Challa asked their support in Wakanda for help on a reconnaissance mission outside the borders.” Steve shrugged.

“Besides,” Tony said. “We're going to Queens. It's Peter's territory. Let's ask the boy's support.”

“And the other situation?” Natasha did not miss the clear division there: the heavyweights, with the exception of Thor and Vision, had all been scaled to Queens, leaving her, Sam and Clint on the other mission. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

Thor and Steve exchanged an uncomfortable look, but it was Tony who spoke.

“Friday caught extremely strong, unusual, and sudden energy signals at Lincoln Center just minutes ago.”

“Sudden?” Sam approached. “What does that mean?”

"It was as if a meteor had entered the atmosphere," Tony said. "Only without going through the air."

"Did it simply materialize out of nowhere?" Natasha asked.

Tony shrugged.

“It's a way of saying.”

"And you want us to go there to check it out," Clint said without emotion.

"Yes," Steve confirmed with a nod. "As we're dealing with energy readings, Thor and Vision are going too.”

"Great," Clint said. "At least two of us aren’t gonna turn into barbecue if the worst happens.”

Captain grimaced, but said nothing.

"All right." Tony clapped his hands. "Everyone knows what to do. We'll meet up here later for the reports.”

"Avengers going to Lincoln Center, please, follow me." Thor led his team to Quinjet while talking to Natasha about the best approach when they got to the location.

Tony allowed himself a heavy sigh before realizing that the room was not yet completely empty. He looked around and raised his eyebrows at the other heroes still present.

"And you're waiting for what to do the same? I'm not going to carry everyone to Queens.”

As if they had taken one of Thor's strikes, Wanda and Bruce rushed out of the room to prepare the other Quinjet, heading for Queens.

Only Tony and Steve remained. And that did not go unnoticed to the engineer, who laughed softly.

“What is it?” Steve asked, turning to face him.

“Have you already realized that no matter what situation we are in, at one time or another, we always end up alone with each other?”

“And is that a bad thing?” Steve asked, approaching himself to the other.

Tony smiled and hooked his fingers in the Captain's belt, pulling him close, ending any air between them.

"Not at all." He let out a low moan as he felt Steve's fingers in his hair. "Actually, I think the universe really likes us, that’s why it always gives us a little time alone.”

"Hmmm... If one day you cross paths with this universe, please give my regards to him." Tony laughed, but soon Steve's mouth was in his and the laughter died, giving way to an involuntary sigh that inevitably always escaped from them when they kissed.

After a short time, Steve pulled away and smiled.

“We need to go.”

"Yeah, I know." Tony started to walk toward the door, but Steve took his hand.

“Hey” Tony turned around. “We can finish it later, okay?”

Tony smiled.

“You bet.”

\- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The trip to Lincoln Center was quick and quiet. Even before they were shipped, Thor and Natasha had already worked out a plan of action for them when they got there. After so many years working together, everyone already knew each other's ways of operating, behaving during a fight and how to get the most out of it. The Avengers, no matter what team was in the field, they always worked in perfect synchrony.

"Two minutes to land," Clint announced from the front of Quinjet.

"I got a warning from the Lincoln Center that the entire complex was emptied." Vision, besides Clint, removed a headset from his head. "For safety.”

"Does anyone have anything to add or maybe want to change in the plan?" Thor asked, swinging the weight of his ax in his hands.

Everyone shook their heads.

"Great," the God of Thunder smiled.

"Do not forget, the energy signature is coming straight from the fountain in the middle of the Lincoln Center," Natasha reminded them.

The Quinjet landed silently behind the David Geffen Hall, and as the rear ramp came down, Vision and Natasha followed from the right, while Sam took flight, and Thor and Clint went to the left, skirting the building from behind, heading toward the stairs. The plan was to surround the source and whatever was issuing that strange and potent energy signature, causing as little collateral damage as possible.

Natasha crept through the late-afternoon shadows that the monumental buildings protruded into the square and positioned herself.

 _What the heck is that?,_ was all she could think of when she finally had a clear view of the source. The spy had already seen a lot of unusual things in her life, from a super soldier frozen alive to space gods, but never anything like that. Clumped awkwardly in the fountain was a sort of huge, metallic, oval ship with a transparent top, opened, pointing toward the orange sky. Although sharply damaged by the sudden fall, the structure remained firm, coldly pretty and efficient, with polished and shiny curves that made Natasha's memory move uncomfortably, but she could not remember why she had the feeling of knowing that thing.

"I'm in position." Sam's voice sounded in Natasha's ear.

"So are we, too." Clint's voice also came up, loud and clear, just before Natasha could find the place he was hiding, a little further away from Thor.

“Vision?” she called.

"I'm ready," the android's mechanical voice sounded in the comms as he floated beside Natasha, heading toward the fountain. He would use his powers of intangibility to take care of any eventuality and provide cover for the others to approach.

Fascinated by the lightness with which Vision headed toward the center of the Josie Robertson Plaza, something caught Natasha's attention in her peripheral vision. Narrowing her eyes, she could see there was something beyond the water in the fountain. Not something. _Someone._

"There's someone in the fountain," Natasha whispered softly.

 _“What?”_ Clint almost screamed.

"She's right," Sam confirmed. "There's a person in the fountain, but I can’t say whether it’s conscious or not. I can’t take Redwing from here without drawing much attention.”

"Vision, extra care." Thor's voice was confident, but Natasha knew he feared for the unknown.

"Do not worry, Thor," Vision said, dangerously approaching from the rear of the ship. "Besides, I already have a look at the whole situation.”

"And what do we have, anyway?" Natasha asked.

"We have a ship, apparently of non-terrestrial origin, with some damage, but with the structure still stable and” Vision went a few feet to the right, being exactly by the side of the ship, facing the place where Natasha was “yes, there is a person here. A young woman.”

“How is she?” Thor asked.

“Unconscious, but breathing. Stable vital signs. No serious injury.”

"What about the energy signature?" Clint asked. "Where is it coming from?"

Vision did not respond immediately and this turned on a warning light on Natasha's head. It was not usual the android to hesitate, much less look from side to side, clearly unsure of what response to give.

 _There's something wrong,_ she thought.

“Vision?” Thor called, taking the android out of stupor.

"The signature of energy is coming from both the ship and the girl." Vision lifted his head to look in the direction Thor was.

“What's the problem?” Natasha asked. It couldn’t be just that. There was something else disturbing the android.

"The signature is the same in both." Vision moved one hand, indicating the young woman leaning over the fountain, and the ship. "But what intrigues me is how that is possible.”

“What does that mean?” Clint asked, clearly impatient.

"The energy that emanates from the young woman is exponentially stronger than that of the ship, which leads me to conclude that, in a somewhat unrealistic way, the young woman is, in a way, the ship's fuel source.”

"Is the girl a gas tank?" Clint said, breaking any seriousness.

Natasha blinked and let out the air she didn’t realize she was holding. All those things didn’t make much sense to her. Mechanical engineering and energy were Tony's specialty and unfortunately he wasn’t present. Tony's memory made Natasha scowl, because her memory failed her once again in trying to relate everything she was seeing. Was there a connection, or was she just tired?

"We will not get anywhere talking here," Sam said, taking flight to the ground. "Let's take it all and take it to the Compound.”

As if out of a trance, Clint, Thor, and Natasha began to move toward the fountain. The sky was already almost completely taken up by the night darkness, and Lincoln Center began to light up magnificently in shades of yellow and orange, casting languid shadows on the walls of the theaters. The fountain, as if waiting for the Avengers to approach it to admire its beauty, brightened brightly, and for a moment it looked more like a fire pit with dancing flames than a fountain.

Sam approached the ship and forced the transparent lid down, which closed with a click. However, a single click was enough to detonate the chaos. As if waiting for the right moment as well, the young woman, who had hitherto been unconscious in the fountain, leaning on the stone ledge, rose in an incredibly agile jump to someone in that condition. She had her back to Natasha and was facing Clint and Vision, her fists clenched and in perfect strike position, her back straight and her breathing controlled.

 _So, she knows how to fight,_ Natasha thought.

No one said anything during a time that seemed infinite, but then Clint made his usual mistake: he tried to help.

“Look, we don’t wanna hur...” he said as he came up with one of his hands up in front of his body defensively. Right attitude, wrong time.

Faster than anyone could expect - but who could have predicted something like that would happen? - The girl lifted her right hand and a powerful beam of light struck Clint on the shoulder, causing him to spin in the air and fall a few feet away. Immediately, Vision and Thor lunged at her, while Sam flew to check if Clint was all right. And Natasha... for some reason, Natasha pulled away enough to watch, but not to get involved. Something prevented her and she did not know what it was. What she really knew was that the girl was fighting very well. She could not be more than eighteen years old, but she certainly was not younger than Peter. Still, her dodging movements were fluid and light, but her attacks were precise and with brute force, not to mention the powerful beams of light coming straight from the palm of her hands. She was a formidable opponent. Two of the most powerful Avengers were engaged in the fight against her, and yet the girl was still standing, with no more than a few scratches.

 _How?,_ was what Natasha was compelled to ask, but once again her memory deceived her. She was asking herself the wrong questions, wasn’t she?

Natasha was taken from her reverie by a cry of pain coming from the opposite edge of the fountain. Thor had managed to hit the girl with one of his lightening, but it was not the shock that made her scream, but the impact against the stone. Natasha saw the girl's left ear dyeing with the blood dripping from a not-so-beautiful wound that had opened on her forehead. Momentarily disoriented, the girl was finally vulnerable and at a disadvantage, letting the path clear to Vision to increase his density, grab her by the neck and raise her to a few inches of the ground. The girl coughed and tried to break free, but Natasha knew it was a futile effort. Once Vision increased his density, only Wanda could face him. And counting on the help of the Scarlet Witch was not an option at the time.

What Natasha knew was that she needed to know more about that girl, to know what questions to ask herself to get rid of those suspicions. It wasn’t possible, right? No one has ever been able to prove anything remotely alike... She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

 _First, I need to see her face,_ Natasha thought. _A face she had been very clever at hiding - purposefully or not._

Natasha walked slowly around the fountain, glancing briefly toward Clint to see him sitting with Sam bandaging his shoulder.

 _Very good, then,_ she thought with a smile. Clint was like a brother. Annoying most of the time, but she loved him too much.

Passing behind Vision, Natasha positioned herself between the android and the God of Thunder, which, as far as Natasha could see, not without surprise, would have his amount of scratches and bruises. That was really impressive.

“All right, Vision, you can drop her n...” Natasha never finished that sentence. When her eyes finally met the girl’s, all the questions she thought about to ask herself were useless, because the answers were already right there in front of her.

Slowly, Vision loosened the grip on the girl's neck and placed her back on the floor, but continued to hold her hands firmly behind her body. All care was little with those beams of energy.

“Please, we do not want to hurt you,” he said. “Do not try to fight us again.”

But the girl did not seem to be paying much attention to his words. Her eyes were glued to Natasha, who was staring at her openly, clearly shocked.

“Are you all right, Natasha?” Thor asked.

Natasha couldn’t say anything. All she could see were those huge, incredibly expressive brown eyes that could declaim poems and declare wars only with their intensity and wit. Eyes that she now saw every day and that had impressed her since the first time Natasha had seen them. Tony Stark's eyes. Eyes that now was staring at her in the middle of the Lincoln Center and that did not belong to Iron Man, but to a completely strange but equally familiar girl.

Stepping hard, Clint approached the other three Avengers, backed by Sam, and alternated his gaze between Natasha and the girl, as if in a tennis play.

“What's going on?”

"Natasha's been like this ever since she looked at the unknown girl," Thor said.

All this was less than a muffled noise for Natasha, who now watched the rest of the girl's face. It wasn’t possible, was it? It shouldn’t be, but the golden hair, shoulder-cut, soft and silky, the perfectly drawn mouth, and symmetrical, delicate features said otherwise. In addition, there was the characteristic, languid and powerful fighting style, one of the only ones that could effectively defeat Natasha in a fair fight. And all this was crowned with powerful energetic beams, probably lethal if she wanted them to be, which were thrown by her hands in the most characteristic position of the world, the most copied among the children who were fans of the Avengers and who one day dreamed of becoming superheroes.

Out of breath, Natasha forced herself to get her voice out.

“Who are you?”

Slowly the girl smiled and that was the last straw. It was real. How could this be happening, Natasha didn’t know, but it was. Somehow, that girl had just smiled Steve Rogers' perfect, welcoming smile right there, just inches from her face. Natasha heard Sam gasp behind her. He had seen it, too.

"What the hell is going on here?" Clint asked, without any patience.

"Dude, to someone named Hawkeye, your eyesight is horrible," Sam said.

Natasha ignored them and continued to stare at the girl.

“Who are you?”

“I think you already know," she said, her voice jovial, but also very bitter, full of sadness. What had happened to her?

“Tell me,” Natasha said. “Please.”

She needed confirmation. She needed to know it was true, even though she knew there was only one way that girl could have endured a fight against Thor and Vision for so long. 

For a minute, the girl looked away and got lost in her own thoughts, her expression growing low, and suddenly it was like as she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Before anyone could say anything, the girl turned to face Natasha with a sad smile.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Liz Stark-Rogers.”

The silence that followed was so intense that it would be possible to touch it. As they all absorbed the girl's – Liz – words and related them to all other similarities more than clear, Natasha smiled. It was obvious that the Steve and Tony she knew didn’t have a daughter, so that girl right in front of her confirmed what were only theories and fantasies: that other dimensions, with other versions of us, in fact, exist.

“Where you are from?” Sam asked.

“From Earth,” Liz said, but then she added, “But not this one.”

“What do you mean with ‘but not’?” Clint asked.

"I came from an Earth that existed," her voice failed sharply, "in another dimension.”

"And what happened to this other Earth?" Vision asked.

Liz swallowed hard and Natasha realized that it was painful for her. Something very serious was about to come out and something that had hurt that girl a lot.

“It was completely decimated” without waiting for interruptions, she continued, “My Earth was destroyed during a cataclysmic event called incursion, in which one planet destroys the other in its path. Unfortunately, this time it was mine.”

“Has anyone else survived?” Sam asked.

“I was the only one. My father was building that ship for our whole family, but the incursion came sooner than he expected.” Her voice began to tighten. “So he modified it and at least one would be saved. For my parents, the choice was obvious” she sadly pointed to herself.

“Your... parents?” Thor still had a questioning expression on his face.

“Yes, my parents: Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.” She smiled beautifully for a moment, delighting in the sound of the names she spoke with reverence.

"Like our fr..." Thor started to say, but Natasha interrupted him.

"This is not the best place for it. Come with us, Liz. We can help you find out where you are now.”

Liz frowned, worried.

"Who are you?"

Natasha smiled.

"I'm Natasha, and these are Thor, Clint, Sam, and Vision. We are members of a team called Avengers” she thought a little “Was there something like that on the other Earth?”

Liz nodded.

“My parents led the team.”

Clint gasped and took several minutes to recover. Natasha glared at him. Maybe it was a mistake not to mention that in this reality, where Liz Stark-Rogers was now, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were still alive. However, how could they tell her that even though they were a beautifully passionate couple here too, she did not exist here before? Maybe hiding that information from her was a huge mistake, but the girl was already going through a lot. Finding out that her parents were alive but that they did not recognize her and, worse, they did not feel anything for her, did not have to be one more burden among so many others.

"Well, that's great," Natasha tried to sound more excited than worried. "So you know what we're doing and we just want to help you. Come with us. Or do you have somewhere else to go?”

She knew that that had been a low blow, but they had to go back to the Compound. And get there preferably before a _certain couple._

Liz shrugged and smiled sadly.

"I have no plans for today.”

"Come on, then," Natasha said. "Vision, you can let her go.”

The android released the girl and went to help Thor load the ship to the Quinjet, while Sam, Clint and Natasha escorted Liz into the aircraft.

"Make yourself confortable," Clint said, distinctly uncomfortable, not quite sure what to say.

"Thank you," Liz said, sitting down on one of the side benches.

“Won’t take long. Try to relax, okay?” Natasha smiled at her and walked away, heading toward the front of Quinjet. “Contact either of those two and see if they've gone back to the Compound,” she whispered to Clint and Sam.

"What if they're already there?" Sam asked, taking off with the aircraft.

"I have a plan so they all know each other, but you're gonna have to help me," Natasha said.

"Just tell me what you need." Clint sat back and looked at her.

"First of all, we need to get there safely." She allowed herself to look at girl at the back of Quinjet.

Sitting alone, leaning against the wall of the plane, half-shrunken, looking helpless and vulnerable, but trying to keep the tough pose she had certainly learned from her father, she was the most important passenger in the world, without any exaggeration.

Natasha allowed herself a heavy sigh. That was meant to be a calm day.

But in the end, there she was taking the daughter of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark to meet her parents.


	3. Worlds Collide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a little longer than expected, but Steve and Tony will finally find out that the family has grown.
> 
> Hope you like it! Leave your comments - they are always very welcome.

>   
>  "After my picture fades and darkness has  
>  Turned to gray  
>  Watching through windows--you're wondering  
>  If I'm OK  
>  Secrets stolen from deep inside  
>  The drum beats out of time--  
>  If you're lost you can look--and you will find me  
>  Time after time  
>  If you fall I will catch you--I'll be waiting  
>  Time after time"  
> 

  


It was still a mystery as to why those Doombots had appeared, but if there was one thing they had already learned was not to try to question Victor Von Doom. 

“Damn diplomatic immunity,” Stark cursed. “I’d give anything to invade Latveria's systems and discover that lunatic's new plan.”

They were all settling into the Quinjet after a long, but not very serious, fight against the remotely controlled robots of Victor Von Doom, the ruler of Latveria known as Doctor Doom. No one was seriously injured, only with a few scratches and blows that soon would turn purple, and all covered with soot and dust from the rubble where the robots fell.

“You control yourself,” Bruce said, patting his friend's shoulder. The Hulk was already under control, so it was now safe to receive demonstrations of affection from the scientist.

“I know.” Stark's gasp sounded metallic behind his helmet. “It's just that I hate surprises.”

“At least this time things went well, right?” Peter Parker, the Spider-Man, was at the Quinjet returning with them to the Compound. It was Friday, and May Parker didn’t mind the kid spending the weekend with the rest of the team.

“Yeah, this time,” Stark confirmed, pulling his helmet back to make his head free. “Let's hope Von Doom does not try again anytime soon until we find out more about what he plans.”

“We can ask Natasha to try to investigate,” Wanda suggested. “She's great at it.”

“Good idea,” Steve agreed from the front of Quinjet. “I'll try to talk to her before we even get to the Compound.”

“Did everything go alright at the Lincoln Center?” Bruce asked no one in particular.

“What happened?” Peter asked as he removed his mask.

“We detected an unusual source of energy coming from there,” Steve replied. “Natasha, Thor, Vision, Clint and Sam went to investigate, but we haven’t talked to any of them since we went out to face the Doombots.”

“They're all right,” Stark said, heading toward the front of the aircraft and sitting down next to Steve. “If anything had gone wrong, you bet we'd already know.”

Steve smiled at him and stretched his hand toward the engineer, who released his armor to entwine his fingers with his husband's. Since Thanos had wiped out half the universe, one thing had become very clear to Tony: he loved Steve Rogers. It was something he could no longer deny or try to hide behind other relationships (poor Pepper, she endured for a long time, Tony had to acknowledge her effort) and he had almost lost him forever. Fortunately, Steve survived and they were able, with the remainder of the original Avengers and other surviving heroes, defeating Thanos and restore life in the universe. After such an unimaginably large task, they deserved to be happy, right? Thanks to Odin, Steve thought the same and better, he felt the same. A few months after the last battle against the Mad Titan, the two were married and Tony couldn’t imagine himself more complete. He was taken from his thoughts by Steve's voice.

“And you've already returned to the Compound?”

“Yes, we arrived a few minutes ago.” Natasha's voice came out from the speakers.

“We need you to investigate Doom and see if you can figure out if he's planning something,” Steve said.

“Sure, no problem.” She hesitated a little and Tony frowned. Natasha didn’t hesitate. “Are you coming?”

“A few more minutes, why?”

More hesitation... so she finally spoke.

“When you land, I need you to send Bruce to the lab and you and Tony come straight to the interrogation room.”

Steve and Tony exchanged a worried look.

“What happened?” Tony asked.

“Nothing serious,” Natasha said, her voice controlled, expressionless, betraying what she had just said. “But I need you both to see what we brought.”

“Do you want us to question someone?” Interrogations were not Tony's favorite role, he preferred to create the equipment and leave that part to the experts.

“No,” Natasha replied quickly. “I want you to be quiet, watching from the other side of the glass as I interrogate.”

Tony breathed a sigh of relief.

“And why do you need us?” Steve asked.

“You'll understand when you arrive,” she said, and hung up.

“Very enlightening,” Tony said.

“Very strange.” Steve was frowning, thinking. “Something very serious happened that left Natasha extremely disturbed. She doesn’t like audiences in her interrogations."

Tony shrugged.

“No use imagining anything now. I doubt any hypothesis will remotely come close. It could be that she's talking about the coffee maker that broke again or that they've caught the Silver Surfer drunk above the space speed limit.”

Steve laughed.

“Only you to joke at a time like this.”

“Honey,” Tony said, standing up. “I try to get cool with my life.” He bent to give the soldier a quick kiss before returning to the back of Quinjet.

“Did you get Natasha?” Bruce asked.

“Yes.” Tony nodded. “And she asked you to go straight to the lab when we land.”

“And you don’t?” The scientist grimaced.

Tony shrugged.

“She asked Steve and I to go to the interrogation room.”

“Strange,” Bruce said thoughtfully.

“Tell me something not strange about this team, Bruce.” Tony smiled at his friend.

“We're here!” Steve announced, and they all held together, while the Quinjet was heading down toward the hangar.

The back ramp opened with a hiss and Wanda and Peter went down first, chatting excitedly about which movie would be best for the weekend session, with Steve, Tony and Bruce right behind.

“Will you meet me at the lab later?” Bruce asked Tony.

“Of course!” Tony said with a smile, “It shouldn’t take too long with Natasha.”

“See you later then.”

“Shall we tell Natasha that we've arrived?” Steve asked.

“I bet she already knows,” Tony said.

Steve nodded and they walked into the compound through one of the side doors of the hangar, heading toward the elevator down the hall. Inside, Steve pressed the button of the basement and, silently, the doors closed and the elevator began to descend. Neither of them said anything. Ten seconds later, the doors opened with a plim! and the two Avengers went out into another corridor, headed to the right, and entered the second door, into a small, dark room with two chairs facing the right wall that was covered with glass to see the other room, but that, for now, was blocked by the other side, most likely by Natasha, who did not want to spoil the surprise before the time.

“I think now’d be a good time for her to know we're here,” Tony said softly.

Steve reached over and pressed a button. Thirty seconds later, the glass in front of them brightened enough for them to observe what was happening in the other room, but no one on the other side could see them.

“All this mystery to that?” Tony could hear the disdain in his voice.

In the other room, sitting on one side of a steel table with her back to them, was Natasha, and facing her was a girl, a little older than Peter, blonde, wearing jeans, a blue T-shirt and a red jacket, with hands on his lap and looking down. Nothing that seemed very disturbing or alarming.

“Please, is this some joke?” Tony could not contain himself.

Steve looked at him with an ugly face.

“Tony, if Natasha called us here it's because she has good reasons for it.”

Tony snorted, but said nothing more.

“Can we start?” Natasha asked, her voice reverberating through the small room where they were.

The girl lifted her head and nodded, staring at the wall behind Natasha. Tony heard Steve gasp and fall into a chair.

“Are you alright?”

Before the soldier could say anything, Tony heard Natasha continue.

“Can you tell me your name?”

The girl had no expression, but Tony had the impression that he knew her...

“My name is Liz Stark-Rogers.”

 _“WHAT?!”_ Tony staggered back, his hands groping for support that he found on the opposite wall. “Is this some kind of terrible joke?”

He stared at Steve's back, which was still like a statue. He could hardly tell if the soldier was breathing. That could only be a joke on Natasha, right? He didn’t have a daughter. He didn’t have a daughter with Steve! What was happening?

“Steve?” Tony called, forcing his legs to move toward the other. “Steve, talk to me.” Tony sat on the other chair and looked at his husband. Steve was glazed in the other room, as if hypnotized. Tony held his face in his hands and turned to face him. _“Steve?”_

As if coming out of a trance, Steve focused on Tony's face and their eyes met.

“Your eyes,” Steve said.  


“What?”

“Your eyes,” Steve repeated. “The girl has your eyes.”

In a slightly sharper way than he planned, Tony dropped Steve and focused on the girl. Her features were perfect, beautiful, and impeccably harmonious. He focused on the eyes: large, round, brown and bright, extremely expressive and curious. A pair of eyes that Tony faced every day when he looked in the mirror. The physical characteristic of him that Steve liked the most.

“What's going on here?”

As if listening and waiting for the right moment, Natasha asked the girl another question.

“How old are you?”

“Eighteen.” Her voice was strong, but also with a very characteristic softness and Tony found himself thinking he could listen to that girl talk for hours.

“And who are your parents?” Natasha continued.

“My parents are Tony Stark and Steve Rogers.” The girl smiled and it was Tony's turn to squeal. He grabbed Steve's leg.

“It's your smile, Steve...” If it wasn’t the first, the smile would certainly be among the top of the list of things Tony loved most about Steve.

“Tony,” Steve said quietly, and that made the engineer turn his head. How could he be so calm? “This girl just said she's eighteen, and you and I are her parents. Do you know what that means?”

“I don’t know what's going on here,” Tony said, his words coming out quickly. “But it's not possible that we have anything to do with this girl!”

“Tony, _look at her!”_

“I know! I'm looking at her too, okay? But the numbers don’t match. _We don’t have a daughter, Steve!”_ Tony managed not to scream. “Besides, even if we had, she could never have been eighteen. You've been off the ice for a little over a decade. Do you realize how none of this makes sense?”

“Where are you coming from, Liz?” Natasha asked in the other room. Tony and Steve turned to listen.

The girl let out a heavy, sad sigh.

“I come from an Earth that was destroyed by an incursion.”

“What?” Tony whispered to no one in particular.

“Can you explain it better?” Natasha asked.

The girl nodded.

“There are several versions of us and Earth scattered in different dimensions. My father explained to me that each dimension is as if it were a single universe, closed in on itself, and does not necessarily know the existence of the other versions." She shrugged. "We knew, but I guess you didn’t, right?”

“There was always suspicion,” Natasha said.

“Is that really possible?” Steve asked Tony, but the engineer said nothing. Indeed, he, Bruce, and Reed Richards always worked on the hypothesis that other dimensions might exist, but the possibilities were extremely remote, since none of them could ever prove this theory. So far.

The girl smiled.

“My father and some other scientist friends, the greatest geniuses on our Earth had investigated these other dimensions when they discovered the incursions: cataclysmic events that basically function as a random selector of Earths that will survive.”

“Can you tell me how exactly these incursions work?” Natasha continued with the questioning.

“Well, one simple way of saying it is: two Earth planets, of different dimensions, go on a collision course. One of them will survive the impact. The other won't.”

“Is that what happened to your Earth?”

“Yes.”

“Has anyone else survived?”

Tony held his breath and felt Steve do the same. Was it possible that their versions of another dimension were somewhere in the Compound waiting for them?

“No,” the girl replied quietly. “I was the only survivor. My father's intention was to build a ship large enough to save our entire family, but the incursion arrived much before his calculations had predicted” she stopped and laughed. “It was the first and only time I saw my father miss a calculation. So he modified the ship enough that at least I could be saved. It was a very quick discussion and I guess I've never seen my parents agree so fast on anything.”

Steve and Tony exchanged a look and Tony couldn’t help but smile. Apparently, their versions of the other Earth were also stubborn and slow to reach a consensus. But when it came to something bigger than them, something they loved, it was easy to come to an agreement.

“Was it intentional for you to come here on this Earth?” Natasha asked.

“No. He only had time to schedule the ship to leave the planet. Where she would fall would be another matter.”  


“So you left with the incursion already happening?”

The girl nodded and Tony saw her eyes fill with tears. Something inside him squirmed and he just wanted to cross that wall and tell her that she was safe now.

“I left when I saw my parents hugged in the middle of the burning lab,” she said in a voice filled with tears. “The last memory I have of them is to see them exchanging one last kiss before everything was being consumed by the fire and I being sucked to the multiverse.”

And now she was crying copiously. Tony got up abruptly and headed for the door, but Steve stopped him.

“Where are you going?”

“I'll go there and tell her we're alive," Tony said as if that were obvious.

“We do. But her parents don’t.” Steve said and Tony realized how that situation was affecting his husband. His blue eyes were distressed and his chest rose and fell rapidly, uneasy. If Tony had to bet, he would say that Steve was giving his all to hold not only Tony inside the room, but himself.

“You want to go there and talk to her, don’t you?”

Steve closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.

“I...” Tony's heart melted and he came to embrace Steve. “I want to know more about who she is, but I also know that it would be unfair to just show up there. She thinks she's alone, that she'll never see her parents again. Imagine how embarrassing it will be to start accepting this, and suddenly discover that two different versions of them are here, but that they never knew of her existence?”

Tony paused to think about what Steve was saying and the soldier was right.

“Let's wait a little longer, then.”

Steve nodded and walked away.

“If Natasha asked us to stay here and not there in the other room, she certainly has her reasons.”

They sat down and looked back into the other room. Natasha had given a handkerchief to the girl to wipe away the tears, but her face was still red and her eyes, bright and alive, now, were impossibly sad.

“I'm sorry for your loss,” Natasha said quietly.

“Thanks.”

“Can I ask you one more question?”

“Of course.”

“Steve and Tony are your biological parents?”

The girl stared at Natasha, seemingly not understanding the question. In the other room, Steve and Tony straightened up in the chairs. After a few seconds of silence, Tony saw the expression of understanding appear on her face and it was lovely to see her eyebrows arching, her mouth opening into a perfect “o” and her eyes widening slightly.

“Do you want to know how I was born?”

“Yes,” Natasha confirmed.

The girl straightened in her chair and cleared her throat.

“Well, I am, first of all, a genetic experiment.” She held up a hand to keep Natasha from interrupting her, and Tony saw Steve smiling from the corner of his eye. “Before I was conceived, my parents decided they wanted a daughter. Not a boy, a girl, because, according to them, the house already had too many men” she laughed, “So, my father Tony combined, in laboratory, the two genetic codes, his and Steve's, and created a new one, placing only the best things of each one of them.” She blushed a little. “That's why, in addition to normal physical features, as one's eyes and the other’s smile, I also inherited my father Tony's intellect, my father Steve advanced strength and metabolism, and also the ability to throw lightning beams from my hands, as my father did, except he used to do it with the armor he created to be a hero there on the other Earth.”

“What?” Tony stood and stuck to the glass, trying to see the girl's hands.

“And how were you born?” Natasha asked.

“A great friend of my parents offered to raise the egg,” the girl said.

“And this friend has a name?”

The girl smiled.

“Yes, she does. Virginia Potts, but we called her Pepper.”

Tony gasped and it took him a few seconds to get back to normal. That story had taken a completely unexpected turn. Pepper had been his and Steve's surrogate belly on the other Earth! How to react to that?

“Wow, that's quite a story,” Natasha commented with a whistle.

The girl shrugged and smiled.

“It couldn’t be different with the family I have.” She stopped and her smile died. “With the family I _had_ ,” she corrected herself.

“I can’t take it anymore, Steve,” Tony said, his head against the icy glass.

Steve got up and stood beside him, hugging him by the waist, over his armor.

“I have the feeling that we won’t have to wait much longer.”

“You're not alone,” Natasha told the girl. “You told me before that the Avengers existed on your Earth, too, and with values very similar to ours. If you want, you can become part of the team. We have a place for you here, Liz.”

That was a pretty name, Tony thought, it suited her. He remembered the fleur-de-lis and all the meanings attributed to that name and sent his regards to his other dimension's self for choosing such an appropriate name.

“I do,” she said quickly. “I have nowhere else to go and I need help understanding how things work around here, even if everything looks very similar.”

“You're very welcome,” Steve said beside Tony.

“Is it possible for us to feel something for her without ever knowing her?” Tony asked.

Steve thought for a moment.

“Maybe,” he thought better and completed. “Perhaps the link that bound her to our versions of the other dimension was so strong that it overcame that barrier and came down to us somehow. Maybe, instinctively, we already knew her, but not in person. Can you understand?” He made a lovely grimace.

“Yes, my dear.” Tony touched his face and smiled. “ _We have a daughter._ Can you believe it?”

Steve smiled beautifully back.

“And she's the best version of us both.” He leaned over and kissed Tony in a mixture of apprehension and happiness.

“Well, Liz,” Natasha said, and the two walked away to pay attention. “You met some of the members when we met you at Lincoln Center...”

“Is that the name of that place?”

Natasha laughed softly.

“Yes, that is. But you didn’t know the whole team.” Tony felt Steve stiffen at his side.

“So _that_ was her plan,” he said.

“Kind of risky,” Tony commented.

“It may not work as she expects.”

“So, Liz,” Natasha continued in the other room. “I don’t think there's anything better than going into the Avengers than meeting our leaders, what do you think?”

“If they are as good leaders as my parents were in leading the Avengers of my Earth, I'm sure we'll get along.” She smiled.

“I'll call them, okay? Just wait a minute.” Natasha got up and a few seconds later the door to the room where Tony and Steve were standing opened revealing the spy.

“Natasha...” Steve started.

“I know, I know,” she said, her hands raised defensively. “But it was the best I could think of. You can fight with me later, but now you have to go there.” She was tired, her expression low and with dark circles under her eyes. It mustn’t have been easy to deal with that whole thing, Tony thought.

“Okay,” Steve said, looking at Tony. “Are you ready?”

Tony nodded, his heart pounding in his chest.

“I am.”

“Then let's go meet our daughter.”

They passed Natasha, who closed the door behind them, leaving the signal clear: there was no turning back. They stopped in front of the interrogation room door and hesitated.

“Let's take it easy, okay?” Steve said and Tony was in doubt if that had been an orientation for him or for Steve himself.

“Hey.” Tony turned to face the other. “It's going to be all right. Our best version, remember?”

Steve smiled shyly.

“Our best version.”

“Good, baby.” Tony kissed her husband's face. “Come on.”

Steve turned the door handle and his eyes immediately met the girl's, who stood up as soon as she saw them enter the room, knocking down the chair behind her. Without taking their eyes off her, Steve and Tony stood across the table, facing the girl. The two exchanged a look and Tony nodded slightly to Steve, who smiled.

“Hello, Liz.”


	4. Since always and forever, my honey bun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The family is finally reunited. But will everything be as perfect as it should be?  
> I hope you like how this unusual family reunion is going to take place.
> 
> As always, comments are always welcome!

>   
>  "I have waited a lifetime  
>  Spent my time so foolishly  
>  But now that I found you  
>  Together we'll make history  
>  And I know that it must be the woman in you.  
>  That brings out the man in me  
>  I know I cannot help myself  
>  You're all my eyes can see"  
> 

The silence in the interrogation room was almost tangible. _We need to take it easy now,_ Steve thought. _She is scared. Lost. Bewildered... Like me when I got off the ice._

That gave hope to the soldier. He knew those feelings, knew what it felt like to feel alone in the world. Maybe that was the breach he was looking for to approach his daughter. 

_How absurd,_ he thought. _Tony and I have a daughter from another dimension._

How far would the absurdities go in their lives? Was there a limit they hadn’t yet reached? Or had they already gone beyond the absurd line long ago? 

_I don’t think we'll ever really know._

What Steve knew was that now he needed to be much more than an Avenger, much more than a leader, much more than a soldier. He would have to be a father and no one gets ready for it in half an hour.

_How could my self from the other dimension did it?_

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve saw Tony shift his weight from one leg to the other impatiently.

_I need to say something._

“Who are you?” The girl, Liz, asked in a strangled voice.

“I'm Steve Rogers,” Steve pointed to himself. “And this,” he pointed at Tony. “Is Tony Stark.”

“Is this a trick?” She asked, her eyes moving frantically from one to the other.

Steve shook his head.

“No. We are real.”

“We're Steve and Tony's versions of _this_ Earth,” Tony said.

The girl denied it with her head, her mouth opening and closing, unable to formulate a coherent phrase and her eyes... oh, her eyes... though completely taken by the shock and the tears that flowed uninterruptedly, Steve saw brightness on them. A hopeful, unbelieving glow, but clinging to every possibility.

“We've heard your story,” Steve said. “And we're deeply sorry that you've been through all those things. No one should carry such a heavy burden in such a short time.”

“But if you'll let us,” Tony smiled. “We'd like to help you make this burden less heavy.”

“You agreed to stay here,” Steve continued. “And we're very happy about that. I know what it’s like to wake up in a world that is not yours. But, like me, you have met extraordinary people who will do anything to help you.”

Steve saw the girl frown.

“And what do you want from me?”

“Nothing,” Tony replied quickly. “I mean, we're not going to hurt you. You yourself said you inherited the best of us.” He waved his hand between himself and Steve. “We want to see it working. It will be fascinating.”

“I inherited the best of _my parents,_ " Liz said bitterly and with anger. “And they're _dead._ ”

Steve and Tony exchanged a look.

“Let us help you,” Steve said.

“Help how?” She was talking loudly now, and Steve was relieved. She needed to exorcise all those demons and she could never manage to keep her cool. He was almost sure it was his other version who had taught her all these things and Steve had to restrain himself from smiling.

“We'll do anything to make you feel comfortable here, so you'll fit in and be happy.” Tony's voice was pleading and Steve knew his husband wanted everything to be going differently, preferably with everyone hugging. How to explain that feeling?

“Happy?” Liz laughed with sarcasm. “My happiness died embracing the love of his life in the midst of the flames of a laboratory in an Earth that no longer exists.” The tears marked the face of her mercilessly.

“And we're sorry for that,” Steve said. “But give us a chance. We were there, on the other side of that wall, and all Tony wanted most was to come across it to hold you and say that everything's going to be all right now.” He stopped short because he heard himself screaming. It wasn’t fair they suddenly feel that huge feeling for that girl and be pushed away without even take the chance to say it to her.

“You're not my parents,” the girl said without emotion.

“But we could be,” Tony said with a hesitant smile, taking a step toward her.

Liz sighed, turned, lifted the chair from the floor and leaned on it.

“Look, you're the exact copy of them. Looking at you two standing still makes it look like as if nothing had happened, but it did.” She stared at Steve and the pain in her eyes surprised him. “I _saw_ my parents die in the middle of a hell. I _know_ you're not them. And I have no idea why you think you can have some kind of feelings for me.” She shook her head. “That's not how it works between dimensions. There's no connection between them, so it's simply _impossible_ that this is really happening,” she sighed heavily. “I'm sorry it doesn’t make it any other way, because I'm sure you're amazing people. I don’t think it's possible that any version of my parents could be less than that.”

Liz tried to smile but eventually grimaced and Steve found himself finding it adorable. That couldn’t end like this.

“So you're not even gonna give us a chance?” Tony said and his voice was desolate.

She denied with her head.

“I'm so sorry.”

Tony came back to Steve and took his hand.

“Come on, Steve. We don’t have anything else to do here.”

 _'It’s impossible that this is really happening,' my ass,_ Steve thought at the sight of Tony's face, completely transformed because of the sadness for not even got a smile from that girl they already loved. Do we love? He released the other’s hand. Yes, we love her.

“I'm sorry too, honey bun, but know that _nothing_ is impossible, not even to love someone you just discovered to be your daughter, despite the extremely atypical circumstances.” Steve was now with his hands on the table, looking deeply at the girl. That was his last trick. “And I'm sure we here aren’t so different from our versions there. And what makes me believe it so strongly is to know that if I were in their shoes, I would pray that the best part of me, my daughter, would find someone willing to love her and take care of her as if it were me. You don’t see us as your parents, nor as people capable of loving you and helping you, but we already see you as _our_ daughter.”

For several seconds, which seemed like hours, no one said anything. Finally, Tony wrapped an arm around Steve's waist and pulled him toward the door.

“Come on, that's enough.”

Completely exhausted, Steve forced himself to accompany Tony. He had said it all. He didn’t have a convincing, scientific, or even plausible explanation for the fact that he and Tony wanted to _adopt_ that girl, because that's what that would be: they would adopt from themselves, as strange as it may seem. But he couldn’t force Liz to accept them. Moreover, both he and Tony had to deal with it.

“Wait.” Tony had his hand on the doorknob. The two of them turned and saw Liz walk around the table to face them, with no obstacle between them. “What did you say?”

“I said we already see you as our daughter,” Steve said, completely turned to her, giving her all his attention.

Liz shook her head.

“No. Before that... what did you call me?”

_Damn it. She was offended, Steve, congratulations._

Of course he could pretend he misunderstood, but everyone there knew that Steve's memory was perfect, in any dimension. He let out a heavy sigh.

“I called you my honey bun. I'm sorry, it was impulsive...”

“Why?” She interrupted him.

Steve frowned.

 _“Why?”_ He shrugged. “I don’t know, it just came out.”

The tears that had stopped were harder in Liz's eyes. She covered her mouth with one hand, sharply shocked, and staggered back.

Tony stepped forward.

“Are you alright?” He stopped halfway, arms outstretched, unsure if his help would be welcome.

She shook her head.

“It's not possible.”

“What are you talking about?” Tony took another step toward her.

 _“Honey bun,"_ she repeated.

“I'm sorry.” Steve held up his hands apologetically. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Liz blinked away the tears, and her eyes returned to that hopeful glow. Steve's heart quickened.

“I'm not offended.”

“So _what happened?_ ” Tony asked, and Steve knew he was holding on to not seem exasperated.

She ran her hands through her hair and smiled faintly.

“My father used to call me _honey bun._ I pretended I hated it, but I always loved the nickname, and he knew it,” She looked at Steve. “It was the last thing he said to me.”

Steve swallowed, but said nothing. Tony took another step toward the girl. Now they were less than six feet from each other.

“Look,” he said, looking at her. “I’ve been thinking that, just maybe, my version of the other Earth, your father, hasn’t considered all the effects of having several versions in various dimensions. Maybe he didn’t have time to dig deeper, maybe he didn’t consider that part so relevant.” He looked at Steve, who nodded encouragingly. “What I'm trying to say is that maybe there are really links that unite our different versions, such as an umbilical cord, and by which we unconsciously exchange information about our lives in those other dimensions. How else would you explain our sudden love for you, our need to protect you, Steve knowing the affectionate nickname that his version of your Earth gave you, and more than that: how did you come to stop _right here_ on our Earth?”

“The coordinates were random,” Liz said quietly, but without much conviction.

“What if they weren’t?” Tony said, “What if my other self programmed your ship to travel much more than randomly through the multiverse? What if he scheduled your ship to land here, where he knew you would find an Earth like yours, with versions of your parents that would love you as deeply as they did?” He shrugged. “That's what _I_ would’ve done in his place. It doesn’t look like much me to make all the sacrifice of modifying a ship, to put my only and beloved daughter inside, in order to, in the end, simply throw her in the multiverse, praying for the best. I’d do the complete job.”

Steve could almost see the gears running through Liz's brain. According to what she had said, she had inherited the intelligence of the other Tony. If that was the fact, Steve knew she was carefully considering everything Tony had just said, and most likely seeing what even Steve saw: nothing here was as random as she thought.

_Maybe we'll have a chance, after all._

More infinite moments passed as the geniuses in the room thought, but from different points of view, when Liz finally lifted her head and looked at Tony.

“Do you really think that?”

“That's what I’d do, sweetheart.” He smiled fondly.

She looked at Steve.

“Did that really come out of nowhere?”

Steve nodded and smiled.

“I've never called anyone like that in my life. Until today.”

He saw Tony nodding.

“Liz,” Tony said and Steve saw the girl gasp listening at her name being said loud and clear by Tony. “Give us a chance to show that we can be good substitute parents.”

 _“Adoptives,”_ Steve corrected. “We'll _never_ replace any of them. But we promise to do our best if you allow us, honey bun.”

Steve knew that was a low blow, but it was the last straw to break through all the barriers that this beautiful girl still had.

“Yes, I do” she said softly. “Now I see that you are the family my parents chose for me.”

Steve and Tony exchanged a brief glance and went to meet her. Tony retracted the armor, going back to his jeans and his T-shirt, and finally getting Liz in his arms. He stroked her hair and Steve saw him smile. She trembled in his embrace.

“Shhh, it's all right now, sweetheart. It's all right.”

Steve came over and covered them both with his arms. He kissed the top of Liz's head and he and Tony exchanged a quick kiss amid their smiles.

“We're together now, as your parents most likely wanted,” Steve said.

“They were amazing,” Liz said. “They've thought about everything to make me feel good.”

“The conclusion we've come to is that we're incredible in every dimension,” Tony said with a chuckle.

Liz walked away and smiled.

“No one can ever say otherwise.”

“Come,” Steve said, taking her hand. “We'll show you your room, all the facilities in the Compound, and more importantly, we’ll introduce you to the whole team officially.”

“They're all gonna welcome Liz Stark-Rogers,” Tony said with a huge smile.

“Let’s go!” Liz smiled beautifully and Steve and Tony's heart filled. A third party grew within them, a part that none of them knew was missing, but for which both always reserved a special place.

They exchanged a glance before leaving the room. And nothing would pay the beautiful gleam in Tony's eyes, Steve was pretty sure of that.

_We have the best of both of us. Nothing can ruin this._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> You are truly amazing! :D
> 
> See you soon <3

**Author's Note:**

> Comments/tips/or whatever you find relevant are super welcome.
> 
> :)


End file.
